When blasting through a mountain of email in the morning you probably never stop to ponder just how each message gets delivered to its recipient. But in an effort to highlight the company's green initiatives, Google has put together a lovely animation detailing The Story of Send.

If you've got the time we highly recommend exploring the HTML version of the story. There are more interactive elements to play with and additional videos that go into more detail on various parts of your email's journey. But if you just want a crash course, and some propaganda on why Google's not so evil when it comes to energy conservation, the Reader's Digest version in the embedded video covers the basics.